Inna gave Raghnall a small glare before continuing as though she didn't hear what he said.
"Anyways, I was a smart kid. The smartest and the cutest in that class--sush!"
Inna quickly destroyed Raghnall's plan. He was surely going to argue with her about it again judging from his scrunched up face expressing his complaint. So, she shut him up before he could even have a chance.
"And aside from those two qualities, I was also the youngest. That's most likely why it didn't take long for the whispers to transform into a more… direct approach."
Inna paused for a short while as she felt all the playfulness from before leaving her.
She sighed tiredly.
The heaviness of all the emotions hidden behind those memories was starting to get to her.
"They… at first, it started with the usual whispers… then whenever I cross paths with any one of them, they would harshly shove my shoulder as they passed me by. I didn't think much of it on the first time it happened, but as days passed, it reached the point where my shoulders would be horribly bruised at the end of the day."
Another sigh escaped from Inna as she remembered the hard pains she had to endure while she hid the bruises from her nanny. Back then, she didn't want to stop going to school even though those things were happening to her. That's because she felt more like a normal human being in that school unlike when she was at home. Being all alone all the time at home made her feel as though she was nothing more than a doll, a decoration used by her parents in order to get what they want.
And so, being the naive little shit, she hid everything from them.
"The bruises… they were bearable, to say the least. And so, it didn't really bother me much aside from when I try to carry things. And I guess when they saw how unaffected I was with their actions, they surely felt unsatisfied. After all, their goal was to make a rise out of me."
"And so, when they realized their shoving did nothing much. After a few weeks, it changed into something else. Their actions got bolder, actually. They started messing with my things, my locker, my chair, my tables--everything that was owned by me, they marked it."
"They carved morbid words into my things, ripped them apart, and dirtied them with god knows what. In order to tune them out, I focused immensely on studies and so, in the span of just a year, I became the smartest in our grade. And being the smartest, the teachers started to take notice of me and because of that, their bullying of me decreased in fear of being caught by the teachers."
"And so, for about a year, their actions degenerated back to whispering and messing with my stuff. They didn't dare to be flashy about it so they stopped the carvings and public displays of violence like their shoving. And in that year, a new transfer student came in as well."
"I… forgot her name… But that transfer student was apparently a daughter from my parents' business partners. I was told by my parents to befriend her or get on her good graces so that I could actually have a friend in school. The teachers must've told them that, huh. But even if my parents told me that, I still didn't have the courage to walk up to someone and be sociable."
"But when I met her, I didn't have the trouble of befriending her because she took the first step. She talked to me and acted like we were the best-'est' friends in the whole wide world. Now that I looked back, she was annoying, actually. But hey, beggars can't be choosers."
Inna snorted in sarcasm.
"So yeah, she acted like she's so considerate to me and that I should be grateful that I met someone like her. Back then, my delusional mind actually thought that that's how friendship works so I glorified her and thanked her immensely for being my friend. The good thing though was that everyone else was afraid of her so she was a good bully-repellant."
"But then, after a few months, her attitude towards me started to change as well. She got more demanding, more domineering, and more spoiled. Whenever I had something she didn't have, I'd be forced to hand it over to her for the sake of friendship. Heck, there was a time where she cut my hair so short because my hair was apparently longer than hers by an inch. And that was the last straw. I screamed at her and declared that I would end our friendship right then and there. Man, that psycho of a woman will never get a boyfriend, I swear."
Inna sneered as she recalled her horror when she saw her lustrous straight black hair fall on the floor back then.
Dammit, talking about her hair made her miss her beauty, her face, and her own body.
"Anyways, I can't even remember her face nor her name but I think I thought of her as ugly back then. But I didn't wanna be rude, y'know so I just kept silent. But since we're always together, we're bound to be compared sooner or later. And when she cut my hair, I had to go to the hairdresser's to have it fixed. And they cut my hair so good that it brought out more of my beauty, y'know? And I wasn't kidding when I say that I'm a beautiful and cute kid. Literally, children of all ages would love me."
Raghnall snorted this time, his face contorting slightly from him cringing but he held his protests in as he listened intently.
Pretending that she didn't hear him, Inna continued on with her story.
"Damn, I still remember when I entered the classroom and everyone literally stared at me. I had that, 'bitch I'm pretty af so y'all better think twice about bullying me again' kinda vibe. But when I locked eyes with that psycho, that vibe kinda got lost into oblivion and I was back to being an awkward anti-social girl again."
"Then, whispers erupted once again but for the first time, it wasn't about me being a spoiled princess, a vampire, a weird alien thing, or any of those ridiculous rumors. It was about how I looked good with my new hairstyle. And of course, the guys in class were the loudest among those whisperers. And with their loud voices, they literally almost announced to the whole class on how I was way prettier than that psycho girl despite being the same rich princesses."
"Of course, that absolutely made psycho girl more psycho and she began to run up to me and scream at my face on how I was nothing more than just a fake princess and all. And I feel like I gotta remind you that I was just about 7 at that time and she was like, about 10. But damn, the words that came out of her mouth was something even an adult would be afraid to say."
"Back then, I didn't understand the words so I wasn't really affected but when the teacher entered the room and heard her… Well, saying she was pissed was an understatement. She actually dragged that psycho girl towards the principal office despite knowing that her parents are one of the rich families in the neighborhood."
"And that psycho girl, in her desperation and jealousy towards me, screamed out parting words that made the regained peacefulness I had when she arrived vanish."